The jury gave … verdict. — Choose the option that best completes the sentence

Analyze the question: The sentence needs a possessive determiner to go before the noun "verdict". The subject is "the jury", so we need the right pronoun to refer back to it.

Explain the concept:

• "Jury" is a collective noun. It names a group acting as one body, so it is usually treated as singular. The matching possessive is its.
• it's is a contraction of "it is" or "it has". It is never a possessive.
• his and her refer to a specific male or female. A jury is a group of people, so it takes neither.

Step-by-step solution:

1. Subject: "The jury" (a collective noun acting as a single unit).
2. The jury reached one shared decision, so we treat it as singular and neuter.
3. The possessive form of "it" is its (no apostrophe).
4. Test the options: • A. "The jury gave it is verdict": wrong, it makes no sense. • B. "The jury gave its verdict": correct. • C. "The jury gave his verdict": wrong, since the jury is not one man. • D. "The jury gave her verdict": wrong, for the same reason.

Answer: B. its

Tip: Expand the word to check it. If "it is" or "it has" fits, use it's. If you are showing ownership, use its, because possessive pronouns (his, hers, ours, yours, theirs, its) never take an apostrophe. Also remember that collective nouns such as jury, committee, team, class and government take its when the group acts as one unit.